Something Fishy
by impossibleorimprobable
Summary: Nakamori Aoko meets Kuroba Kaito at a newly open seafood restaurant when he defeats her at a game of blackjack for the grand prize of a pufferfish. She was prepared to handle the loss with grace, but then she finds out he doesn't even like fish. Thus begins a beautiful friendship. [KaitoxAoko, Normal AU]


**A/N: ONE DAY LAAAAATE~ But, in honor of Kaito's birthday, a fluffy fic, where, FOR ONCE, I don't make anyone hate him/hurt him/etc. lol. He's worked hard in these fics for the last six months. He deserves it.**

 **The blackjack scenario actually happened, except it was with a giant lobster as a prize instead. I thought it'd fit better if it was a fish. It was kind of fun actually, playing blackjack with a bunch of random ppl.**

* * *

The pleasant buzz of the beer Keiko and the others had given her to go with the lobsters they'd ordered had just been setting in when the waitress, a small, energetic thing with some evidently amazing lungs, got up on the table and began yelling to the entire restaurant without a loudspeaker.

Since it was opening night of the newly set up seafood restaurant, it was time for a special event. Each table of customers was going to nominate a single person from their party to face off in a game of blackjack, and whoever managed to beat all the other contestants would win the grand prize of a pufferfish for their entire table.

And before Aoko had even known it, she'd been nominated as the representative for their table, which was most definitely not good, because she was terrible at card games and Ran-chan had much better luck anyway and-

Akako gave her a push and then suddenly she was stumbling out into the aisle and colliding with the young man from the next table over, with blue eyes and dark, wild hair.

Aoko turned bright red and apologized profusely as he helped her up.

"You too, huh?" he said sympathetically. "Thrown to the sharks by your foodie friends." A conspiratorial grin. "I think they'd kill me if I lose."

"I don't even know how to play blackjack," she shrugged. "So I guess I'm not much in the way of competition."

"Kuorba Kaito," he offered her a hand. Before she was able to shake it though, a rose blossomed from his palm, out of thin air, and he presented it to her, grinning again as she gasped in surprise. "Magician. Card games are kind of my specialty."

"Nakamori Aoko," she took the rose from him, flushing at the amount of wolf whistles that were now assaulting her ears from behind (seriously, Sonoko-chan, shut up), and then added, a beat later, with an embarrassed smile, "Can you teach me before it's our turn to draw so I don't look like a complete idiot in front of a restaurant of strangers?"

He put a hand on her shoulder and turned her around so that she was facing the lady dealing the cards.

"You're looking to collect 21, or as close as you can get, from the addition with the card numbers," Kaito explained, "If you go over you're out. J, Qs and Ks count as ten point cards. An ace is one or eleven, depending on your choice. Get it?"

"Sure," Aoko said, even though she wasn't sure she really did get it, twisting the thornless stem of the rose he'd just given her, staring at the card dealer in growing distress. She was going to fail horrifically and then her entire table was going to be disappointed. Not only that, it would be undoubtedly embarrassing if she got brushed off in the first round-

"Hey," he reached past her and plucked the rose from her hands, tucking it behind her ear. "Stop that. Jeez, what even is your grip? I don't give these out for them to be destroyed, you know. Besides," A softer smile. "You'll be fine."

"...Thanks."

It was her turn to draw.

She took a deep breath as the dealer handed her two cards. The top was a two. She glanced at the bottom, careful not to let anyone else take a peek.

"How are your cards?" Kaito asked, sidling up to her nonchalantly as the waitress arranged them in a semi circle.

"Not bad," she admitted, "You?"

"Mine aren't bad either," he grinned.

Aoko came to the conclusion that Kuroba Kaito smiled a lot. And really, it did work to his advantage. She was definitely not referring to the fact that the way his face lit up like that made her a little bit breathless-no, no, she was referring to the fact that he had an excellent poker face. Yes. Yes. That's what she meant.

"We're going to go in a clockwise direction. If your current cards add up to less than fifteen, then you need to take a hit." The waitress went down the line. Almost immediately, the rest of the representatives were out, leaving Aoko and Kaito.

"Like I said," he shrugged as the card dealer went to Aoko, "It's more about luck."

Aoko grimaced. "Hit me."

The waitress gave her a card. Aoko added the numbers up mentally in her head and sighed.

"Hit me," Kaito said softly from behind her.

"Are either of you out?" the waitress asked.

"Nope," Kaito grinned.

"No," Aoko echoed softly.

"Do either of you want another hit?"

"No," was said in unison.

"Then, reveal your cards!"

Aoko flipped her hand over. She had a two, a king, and a seven. Nineteen.

Kaito smirked, and turned his hand over. An ace, a king, and a nine. Twenty.

The restaurant erupted into cheers.

Aoko sighed, wincing at the volume, and offered her hand to Kaito. "Good game."

"You did well, young padawan," he said, all seriousness, but then flinched at something behind her.

Aoko turned her head, confused, and nearly collided with the waitress, who'd gotten a platter of the promised pufferfish sushi and was now trying to pass it on to Kaito. He looked positively green, though, and took an entire three steps backward.

"Uh...are you ok?" She was just slightly concerned. A beat later though, she doubted if she wanted to know.

"Ichthyophobia."

"...What?"

"I'm scared of fish," he admitted, squeezing his eyes shut tight. Only then did she comprehend that he'd been holding on to her with a death grip all this time.

Her eyes were as wide as sacuers. "You're kidding."

"I'm not. I'm really not. So could you maybe get that out of my face before I start hyperventilating."

Aoko asked the waitress to bring the sushi to Kaito's table, and sat him down on a stool. "Would you like a paper bag?"

"I'm fine, I just gotta keep away from-gaaaah!"

The chef muttered a quick apology before passing on what appeared to be a plate of fried salmon to a waiter.

He was squeezing her wrist so much she was sure to find bruises in the morning. "Hey-you sure you don't need a paper bag?"

"Nope, fine." He produced a deck of cards magically from his sleeve, eyes still firmly shut. "Pick one."

Raising an eyebrow, she did.

"Ace of spades?"

"How did you know? You didn't even open your eyes!"

"A magician never reveals his secrets. Do you have a hat?"

Aoko leaned over to steal Ran's bonnet.

Again without looking, Kaito pulled a dove from it.

"Do you do magic tricks when you're freaked out?"

"When I'm anxious," he corrected, rolling a coin over his knuckles. Well, at least he wasn't using his pent up energy on gripping her wrist anymore.

"Jeez, why'd you come to a seafood restaurant if you hate fish this much?" Aoko pondered out loud, half laughing, half grimacing, as the dove he'd produced from his earlier magic trick hopped across her lap.

"...I can handle lobsters?" he suggested weakly, taking a peek at his surroundings by cracking open one eye. "Besides, my friends thought it was a good idea for me to face my fears. What jerks."

"What about that pufferfish?" she asked, with a pout. "It'd be such a waste!"

"Eh, Hakuba or Kudou or Hattori wouldn't mind eating my share for me. I'll just...hide here, until they're done?" He looked as hopeful as she felt, but then she remembered.

"I'm afraid that won't work out. Akako has a passion for sashimi." A little reluctantly. "You'd better go hide out in the bathroom or something. At least until your friends are done with the pufferfish."

"Dammit," he ran a hand through that messy hair as he got up, making it even more like a bird's nest. Kaito's eyes were carefully fixed on her face, probably to avoid seeing all the fish that was around him. "Thanks, though," blue-eyed gaze met blue-eyed gaze, "You're a very good distraction."

"Uh." She said, very intelligently, turning a lovely shade of red. Was that supposed to be a compliment?

"Later." He grinned, and disappeared around a corner.

Aoko stared after him for one second. Two.

And then she turned back to her friends, and accepted the round of teasing with as much grace as she could possibly muster. In fact, she was just trying to explain to Sonoko that "that's just how he introduces himself, I'm sure he doesn't mean anything by the flowers-" when the waitress came by with a familiar looking piece of pufferfish sushi and a note.

It was only then that she remembered his dove was still nestled quite happily in Ran's bonnet. Goddammit.

Sonoko was looking at her across the table with narrowed eyes combined with that knowing smirk and Ran was smiling sympathetically and Aoko groaned out loud because there was definitely no way she was going to be able to deny anything now, no matter what the truth actually was.

She unfolded the note and flushed even redder (honestly that's all she seemed to be able to do, since meeting him), though she couldn't keep a smile from spreading across her face.

"For the young padawan who almost beat me."

Well. She only knew one ichthyophobic idiot that insisted on coming to a seafood restaurant.

Hmmm.

Ichthyophobic, huh?

After pausing for consideration, she scribbled her number on the back of the note and handed it to the waitress, and dug in happily to the sushi. There was nothing odd about it, she rationalized. After all, the dove was probably his pet and she'd do well to return it. Ignoring Sonoko's shouted "Give us details," Akako and Ran's arched eyebrows, and Keiko's elbow in her ribs, she walked away from the meal (the dove having taken to nesting in her hair rather than the bonnet) relatively satisfied.

Besides.

Aoko had a plan already, and now she was able to put it into motion.

* * *

Kaito called her two days later. "Please tell me this is not a phone prank hotline."

"You've reached the live model decoy of Nakamori Aoko," She joked, using the officious voice that advertisers did, "Please leave her a message."

"Well then, Nakamori Aoko. Please tell me you're feeding Bessie."

"...Bessie?"

"My dove?"

She spared a distracted glance at the little bird, pecking away happily at her feeder. "Yeah. She's a happy little bugger."

"Can I pick her up? I kind of need her for a show."

"Sure. When? Where?"

"-And," He cut in sounding half embarrassed, "I was going to ask you out for coffee."

Her eyes lit up. "Can I pick where?"

Something in her voice must've given her away. He groaned. "Don't say 'Meet me at an aquarium.'"

She did ask him to meet her at an aquarium, half expecting him not to show up.

When he eventually did though, he looked as grave and somber as if he was about to march into battle.

Aoko laughed, grabbed his hand, and let him know that they weren't going in, silly, they were just going to the cafe across the way. It was almost funny to see the way his face relaxed as she dragged him away, and then immediately tensed up again when he realized the cafe was aquarium themed.

"I didn't peg you for a sadist," he grimaced when he sat down.

"I'm not," She said. "There will be nothing to do with fi-"

"Finny things," he interrupted hastily.

"Finny things today, for you," She filled in, trying to suppress a grin. "Just coffee. Fear of the name increases fear of the thing itself, you know."

"Harry Potter," he remarked. "And before you sound surprised, what kind of magician would I be if I didn't read books about magic?"

"Speaking of magic," Aoko lifted Bessie from her own hat this time.

He cooed at her. He actually cooed.

Then their orders arrived and Kaito's eyes bugged out of his skull.

"I thought you said-"

"I said for you," she said, as she dug happily into a fish-shaped cake. "Never said anything about me. This is a free country!"

And it was the start of a beautiful friendship.

* * *

Things escalated from there.

He invited her to a matinee of his show.

They went brunch afterwards, and then did honest to god lunch, a week later.

And somehow, they always ended up at a restaurant that served at least one kind of finny thing.

Kaito's bad habit had rubbed off on Aoko. She could barely say fish in daily life without bursting into laughter, and saying finny thing reduced her to a fit of giggling.

It was terrible, really, and she blamed him entirely, as she told him every time they met. Aoko tried every time to get him to at least try sushi. He grimaced and called her a sadist consistently. They always talked before their orders arrived, about him, about her, sometimes just about life in general.

It became a little routine that eventually branched out into bigger things.

They went to see movies together. (Definitely not Finding Dory, he said, frowning, as he handed the popcorn distastefully to Aoko.) They walked through the park sometimes, where he sometimes let out his doves and they flew in a flurry near the sidewalk, but somehow, Kaito always managed to collect all of them before he left. When they just had plain nothing to do they called sometimes, and talked then too.

Aoko's friends were over the moon. Somehow she didn't feel the need to curb the teasing.

Spending time with him put a smile on her face. She didn't stop to think about what that meant, just kept doing it, because it was a simple life and she was a simple girl and all she really wanted was to continue.

"Hey, do you have anything Saturday night?" she asked, one day, over the phone.

"No?" He sounded doubtful. "But if you're dragging me to any seafood restaurant, I definitely do."

She laughed. "No. But I was asking if you wanted to have dinner."

"..."

"Oh come on. Do you not trust me?"

"Your track record isn't exactly good," he pointed out.

"Eight o' clock, my place."

Maybe a little part of her was just wondering why he'd always shown up. Because even though she was constantly attacking him with seafood, ambushing him perhaps a little unreasonably with the thing he feared the most, he kept coming back. He never stopped coming back. And maybe Aoko was ready to find out why.

* * *

The doorbell rang just as she put the last dish on the table.

She pulled it open to his raised eyebrows. "Aoko knows how to cook?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, bakaito. Now put this on." A scarf was shoved at his face.

"Um?"

"You're doing the taste testing today."

Kaito groaned but put the scarf around his head anyway. "The only reason you're going to blindfold me is because there's fish, isn't it."

"Hey, you said it!" She chirped as she steered him to a chair. "That's an improvement, right?"

"Sometimes I wonder why I show up to these."

"Sometimes I wonder too."

He smiled, a strange sight, considering there was still a scarf wrapped around the top of his head. "Don't be silly, Nakamori Aoko."

"You're the one being silly."

"Well," he spread his hands, after a moment's pause. "Do your worst."

She picked up a piece of the grilled salmon she'd put a lot of work into seasoning. The second it came close enough for the scent to hit his nose, he wrinkled it.

"Oh come on, it can't be that bad."

"Was it your plan all along? To strategically desensitize me to fish until you can have your evil ways with me?" He craned his neck away from her.

She rolled her eyes and pressed, "Come on-" he struggled "just one-" She was having none of it "Tiny little bite-"

She tripped. He caught her.

Just like that.

Aoko flushed when she realized exactly where she was, relative to space, of course. Somewhere during the struggle she'd climbed on top of him and now that she'd fallen she was now half sitting in his lap, arm held awkwardly out on both sides, chopsticks and fish still in her hands.

"Um," she said, very intelligently, and could almost hear him rolling his eyes as he closed the distance between them and kissed her.

People talk about kisses like they're magic. Like they're sacred. Like they're supposed to taste like fireworks.

They didn't. No, in this particular case, they tasted like fish.

"Sorry?" She offered, still a little slow, a little dumb, when he drew away and made a face.

"You'd better be," he pretended to grumble, unwrapping the scarf to gaze at her with shining eyes, "Couldn't you have eaten chocolate or something? No, it had to be fish."

She had to laugh. "I won't be eating finny things next time."

"Really?" he looked hopeful.

"It'll still be my life long mission to get you to like fish though."

"Not gonna happen." He waves the chopsticks he'd stolen from her.

Aoko gasped. "How did you-?"

"I was a good distraction," Kaito grinned, before he kissed her again.

* * *

In this world everything was fine. In this world nothing was wrong besides the fact that he was an icthyophobe that won a pufferfish.

And this was how resistance died. In silence. In peace. Sunny afternoons, laughter, uncertain first steps and second steps, months walking with her hand in his. In this world there was no universe-changing secret to tear her from him. There were no men in black, no dramatic revelations or danger that forced either to realize, all at once, that they were irrevocably and completely in love with each other.

In this world it snuck up on them. In this world they were already at the bottom of the cliff before they realized how much they really needed the other.


End file.
